Virtual school enrollment jumps 38 percent

Controversy surrounds two schools with largest increases

Oct. 19, 2012

An analysis by Gannett Wisconsin Media in August found that students enrolled in Wisconsin's virtual schools tend to lag behind their brick-and-mortar counterparts. Students in virtual schools were also less likely to take ACT or Advance Placement tests. School officials acknowledged that data is somewhat lacking, and questions have arisen about how best to measure student performance. / Gannett Wisconsin Media

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Gannett Wisconsin Media Investigative Team

Enrollment in Wisconsin’s virtual schools soared 38 percent this year, boosted by changes to state law that removed an enrollment cap and substantially expanded the time students have to sign up.

But the increases are tinged with controversy, with most coming from one for-profit virtual school, which nearly doubled in size, and an unusual new virtual school that debuted with nearly 500 students.

A Gannett Wisconsin Media survey of the state’s 28 virtual schools showed a total enrollment of 6,794 on the third Friday of the school year, the date on which counts are taken to determine how state funds are allocated. Last year, 25 virtual schools enrolled 4,907 students, according to state Department of Public Instruction data.

Clearing the way for the increase was Gov. Scott Walker’s 2011-13 budget, which lifted the previous virtual enrollment cap of 5,250 students. This is the first truly uncapped year because the budget was signed after last year’s enrollment period.

The Legislature also expanded open enrollment — the process by which students living in one school district can enroll in another — from three weeks to three months. In addition, students now can apply for exceptions to the open enrollment deadline at any time. DPI guidelines say one permissible exception is simply if the move “is in the best interest of the student.”

Rick Nettesheim, principal of Waukesha’s eAchieve Academy, said the exceptions had a “significant impact” on enrollment, allowing the school to accept more than 50 additional students between the end of the open enrollment period and the third-Friday count. Wisconsin Virtual Learning in the Northern Ozaukee School District reported 48 new students enrolled under exceptions.

State Rep. Steve Kestell, R-Elkhart Lake, said he was not surprised by the enrollment increase made possible by the legislative changes.

“Parents and the students themselves being able to have choices in general is a good thing,” said Kestell, who heads the Assembly’s Committee on Education. “We won’t know whether (increasing enrollment) is a good thing ultimately until we know more about how their education is affected. … I think it’s too soon to tell.”

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A Gannett Wisconsin Media analysis of virtual schools in August found virtual students trail their traditional counterparts in almost every subject area and struggle to graduate on time, with barely 50 percent finishing high school in four years.

Among the 25 virtual schools also operating last year, only three saw enrollment decline this year, most notably iForward in Grantsburg, which dropped from 655 to 407 students after severing its ties with a for-profit provider. Four smaller schools more than doubled enrollment, led by JEDI Virtual High School near Madison, which grew from 17 to 77 students.

For-profit's enrollment jumps

All increases pale in comparison to McFarland’s Wisconsin Virtual Academy, which jumped from 1,058 to 1,964 students, an enrollment more than double any other Wisconsin virtual school. It is one of only two of the state’s for-profit virtual schools.

The school appears to be benefiting from its status as the only K12 Inc. school in the state, after eAchieve and iForward dropped their affiliation with the for-profit provider following the 2011-12 school year. Administrators at both schools allege K12 improperly diverted students from their schools to Wisconsin Virtual Academy.

Nettesheim said K12 left active a website with eAchieve’s old name and branding that sent students to a K12 switchboard — despite the school’s repeated objections. Grantsburg Superintendent Joni Burgin said iForward, formerly called Insight School, experienced similar problems with K12 in the final months of its contract. Both schools paid K12 to provide marketing and operational resources, unlike Wisconsin Virtual Academy, which is run entirely by K12.

Nettesheim said the Waukesha school district’s legal counsel “continues to be actively involved” with K12 regarding its actions while it was under contract, but he declined to elaborate. Burgin said K12 “is being held accountable” for its actions but declined to say whether that would include legal action.

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Burgin blamed K12 and the school’s name change for iForward’s 38 percent drop in enrollment. Enrollment at eAchieve still increased 16 percent after dropping K12, but it also spent more than $400,000 on marketing its new name.

Jeff Kwitowski, K12 spokesman, said K12 had no contractual obligation to provide marketing support for Grantsburg’s renamed program, and parents who called “were given accurate information that Insight School would not be offered in Wisconsin in 2012-13.”

He denied K12 “attempted to encourage” former Grantsburg students to move elsewhere and said fewer than five current Wisconsin Virtual Academy students self-reported having attended Grantsburg previously.

Burgin said independent virtual schools will struggle to compete with companies like K12 unless the state Legislature steps in.

“Public schools are not even on the same playing field in the marketing realm as the for-profits,” she said. “We’ve got all these wonderful charter schools … and all of their students are being funneled off right into the for-profits because public schools can’t compete with those marketing dollars. That’s not right.”

New school for home schoolers

A new school in Merrill — Bridges Virtual School — also is drawing some controversy because of its setup as a curriculum clearinghouse instead of a traditional school.

John Hagemeister, school administrator, said about 80 percent of the school’s 460 students are former home schoolers who never went to public school. He acknowledged the access to “free,” taxpayer-funded curriculum likely is the biggest draw for the school, which lets families choose from a variety of curriculum providers.

While students are required to take at least three math and reading assessments throughout the year to gauge their progress in those core subjects, the school relies heavily on parental involvement and has only four teachers, each of whom work as “case managers” for the various families. Hagemeister said the school is in the process of hiring eight more teachers but was admittedly unprepared for such a large first-year enrollment because it did no marketing.

“It started with just a local program that grew, and we didn’t really anticipate the response we were going to get,” he said.

State Superintendent Tony Evers said he is not a fan of Merrill’s education model.

“One of the concerns I do have is that the virtual school law is relatively permissive, and we have some schools popping up around the state that frankly look more like resource centers for home school kids than they do schools,” Evers said in an interview this summer. “It’s a fine line, but we’re approaching it.”

State Sen. John Lehman, chairman of the Senate Committee on Education and Corrections, said he does not like seeing the state take on financial responsibility for homeschooling families.